by Matthew Brown and Mick McPhan (Group 14)
The key to integrated marketing success is to capture peoples attentions through a number of different mediums. These adds do not just have to be cut and paste across for example TV, Internet, Billboards but they do need to need a common theme so that people identify with the product that is being marketed.
A great way to do this is to develop a character that people associate with a brand. A cute and cuddly family of Meerkats captured the hearts and minds of people in a master ongoing marketing campaign for Compare the Market.com
Compare the Market is a business that compares insurance policies, utility plans and financial products from some of Australia’s most trusted brands.
Oleg is the latest character to enter the Meerkat family and through out the series of adds you get to see his life develop which creates a sense of us growing and bonding with the family and essentially the brand. Oleg even has his own blog.
http://www.comparethemarket.com/meerkat/blog/oleg/.
The campaign has covered TV, Online blogging, Posters, Movie adds and Meerkat toys to try to appeal to all types of potential customers. The cute Meerkats have given Compare the Market a very strong brand association with a group of characters that stick in peoples brain and also very cleverly can continue to bring new life to the ongoing campaign by adding a new member to the Meerkat adventure or sending the family on a new adventure that recaptures the publics interest in the products.
By sticking with the Meerkat family over the last 6 years has given audiences a consistency of brand image and helps to strengthen brand awareness and association as opposed to continually changing advertising themes and thus losing that relationship that has been built up between potential consumers and the brand.
If watching cute Meerkats is your thing enjoy the following 15mins of the Compare the Market Meerkat ads.
Don’t you now love Meerkats? Who is your favourite?
Isn’t this one of the cleverest integrated marketing campaigns of recent times?
Let us know your thoughts on how to take this marketing campaign further into the future?
References
http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-case-studies/
http://www.comparethemarket.com/meerkat/history/
Click to access 9780170223997.pdf
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gNT1fbbTuU”
http://www.comparethemarket.com.au/?cid=ps:ga:brand:105548&gclid=CJSNp5GBhMgCFUYsvQodd1MLFA
http://www.comparethemarket.com/meerkat/blog/oleg/.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75VpOGcotlU”
Dawn Iacobucci MM4 Student Edition
Marketing Management Blog 
Interesting article gents.
One of the main aims of an integrated marketing communications campaign is to appeal to as many of your relevant target in a way that both appeals to their personalities and buying behaviours, whilst at the same time presenting a consistent and unified message.
So, while I do agree that there is a good deal of merit in presenting a consistent and unified approach, this style of ad tells us much more than that.
Firstly, beyond being consistent, it is also unusual and very clever. In many ways it pre-empts how we might mock the ad, with the advertiser ‘getting their revenge in first’. Whether by accident or by design, someone at the ad agency or the company has recognised the concept of compare the meerkat and has decided to run with it. By adding (presumably) Russian accents to the meerkats, and by giving them names, they become personalised and we identify with them more strongly. They therefore become memorable, and before you know it you’re singing the jingle!!
So, which are you more likely to remember – a bland, generic ad, or one that stands out and is memorable. Youi’s ads being all about real people, who appear in the ads and Allianz’s ‘AAAAAhhhllianz’ ads try to do similar things, creating a brand sub-identity, associated with a concept or theme. This is also the reason that iSelect has used the same front man in all their ads – he comes to represent the brand, on TV, internet, billboards, internet etc.
The real genius in the meerkat ads to me lies in how they have targeted their market. By adding the latest infant addition to the family, they are appealing to young families, playing on the parent’s desire and need to care for their families but also saving money. Slightly older kids will see the meerkats, who are all names, as an ersatz kids’ show, while adults will enjoy the sense of humour of the whole thing. In many ways, these deeply-themed ads become like long-running soap operas, wit the ad companies releasing teasers or trailers in advance of a new ad
LikeLike
Hello,
How can you create the best integrated marketing strategy for your business?
Integrated marketing is more than creating one slogan and sending it out through every channel that you THINK will reach your target audience. The key to integration is creating one identity and communicating it from message to message and from medium to medium. As Business Week says, “it [integration] requires not only the identification of a powerful, unifying strategy and compelling voice for your brand, but the discipline to roll it into every aspect of your organization—from advertising to sales, customer service to customer relationship management programs (and beyond).”
With Regards
Nishanth
LikeLike
Nice Blog..
Compare the market company has indeed done a wonderful job, by using a comic characters and developing them, to promote itself and its products/services. But using animated character to sell products/services is not a new idea. Many companies in the past have made use of cartoon characters to launch its products/services into the market.
Advertising products using comic or animated characters is a powerful marketing tool. A cartoon character gives a company, product, service or brand unique, some memorable qualities that resonate in the market place. In a competitive market it is the innovative advertising that gets you business and stay afloat in market place.
Nowadays, almost every company offers quality, high level of service. Even prices are comparatively same. Then how can a company compete in any developed market? It is this advertising with help of characters that helps a business work.
One example I would like to share is of the famous Frito-Lay company which is a subsidiary of PepsiCo Inc., the food and beverage leader with a net revenue of more than 65$ billion and a strong product portfolio with about 22 famous brands.
In 1983 the company used an animated mouse character to launch and promote its Cheese flavoured snack food Cheetos. Check the advert through below link:
Later, by 1989, the mouse got changed with a new character named Chester Cheetah but used the same slogan as the Cheetos Mouse, “The cheese that goes crunch,” as seen in this commercial on the link : https://youtu.be/-2aupcCKyho
Chester gained popularity and so did the product. Gradually, Chester cheetah became the brands official mascot. In 1992, Frito-Lay along with Super Nintendo launched a game, “Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool”. This was a strange attempt at product placement in video games. Also, due to the growing demand another game company Sega Genesis launched its sequel – Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest.
In 1996, Chester got a new slogan – Dangerously Cheesy. This remained the main slogan for numerous years, as seen in below commercial where Chester’s stunt double is Daffy Duck : https://youtu.be/32YaDaX8NAY
Chester maintained this animated form for quite some time, usually starring in commercials during afternoon programming where he would get in to all sorts of crazy adventures while either enjoying or trying to obtain Cheetos.
Chester also appeared in CGI form in some commercials as opposed to his usual animated form, as seen in this series of commercials which depicted Chester going undercover : https://youtu.be/i7cKKRwwdWY
Everything changed in the mid to late 2000’s. Cheetos gave Chester a new form, with Mid-Atlantic accent which fits his new devious demeanor and somewhat malicious motives.
Solve all of your problems with Cheetos : https://youtu.be/8-V8wd_aGPI
In 2011, the company introduced a new slogan – “Take a Cheetos break.”, gave some comical situations including a memorable spot with a mattress fort, as seen can be seen in the advert : https://youtu.be/F2O2nAeZKQM
Over the period, people have enjoyed watching Chester as well as the product which has enabled the company to continue with the product in the market.
Hope this helps!!
LikeLike
I rember chester well as I lived on Cheetos as a kid. The combination of a character that looks cute and better still has some personality that people can attach to a product or another way is to create a jingle that annoyingly sticks in peoples heads like the old I like aeroplane jelly campaign on TV and radio along with loyalty give aways, in the case of aeroplane jelly it was a foam glider.
Appreciate the feedback.
LikeLike
The power of cuteness can be a fantastic element for marketers if used creatively and carefully. If one is able to tap into it, a major breakthrough with the product marketing can be achieved. The use of ‘cute’ in advertising and its effectiveness comes down to whether or not it makes sense to do it for your product or service.
Examples like universal studio’s minion promotions throughout a number of platforms and viral videos of kittens and puppies doing the rounds all over social network further enforce the acceptance of cute advertising. However marketers do need to bear in mind that ‘cute’ is not a magic tool in marketing. It’s just another marketing gimmick that requires product applicability, understanding of the target consumers and a balanced tinge of common sense.
If it’s couched in cute, it’s a winning strategy right now. Also cuteness is one of the best ways to attract attention and shares without courting any controversy whatsoever!!
LikeLike
Thanks for your comments, cuteness has always been a great hook to get people’s attention.
Think about all the add campaigns that have use cute puppies and dogs as centre pieces selling everything from toilet paper to paint and most things in between
LikeLike
Good Blog.
Vodafone India had also adopted same strategy in marketing. They introduced zoozoo which got a massive response from the people. There were many funny add videos on tv that made people love zoozoo. There were many different toys as well as stickers in market that made the company so populars compared to its competitors. Most of the people were so involved in zoo zoo promos and were waiting for its new set of videos to release.
These special character introduced were added advantages to the company that made profits as well. IMC is a part that helped the company to build up a new way of advertising. IMC played a major role in creating these characters that helped to build the companies image.
LikeLike
Thanks for the thoughtful feedback
LikeLike
Earlier this semester I read an article on ‘Brand Performances on Social Media’ by Sangeeta Singh & Stephan Sonnenburg, which begins by saying:
“The branding literature has long recognized the power of storytelling to provide meaning to the brand and practitioners have used storytelling to enhance consumers’ connections with brands”.
I think Compare the Meerkats (Market) have done an excellent job with telling a story, and have further enhanced this story by employing different social media to further build the brand and engage the consumer. On twitter they have approximately 66,000 followers, and they are updating on a regular basis. They have both Compare the Meerkat and Compare the Market websites, which is smart. They have even thrown in some stuffed toys to boot, so people are going to have a personal reminder of the brand sitting in their house.
In terms of where the story can go, the 15 minute clip that was included in the blog, appeared to be like a mini soapie. So I guess they can take it anywhere, they have established several strong characters, and there are always going to be an endless stream of possible stories. They could engage their social networks and ask their followers what they would like the Meerkats to do next.
I came across the below article about the campaign, which is an interesting read into the original motivation for the name.
https://www.branded3.com/blog/the-search-strategy-behind-compare-the-meerkat/
Thanks for the blog.
LikeLike
Thanks for your comments. I agree with your link to story telling and the opportunities this provides into the future.
LikeLike
nice cute topic as well as blog!!
Yes it is very important to have a strategy that will always keep our brand in the customers memory. Technology has expanded our ability to connect and interact with others to a degree unheard of even a decade ago. However, due to this continued expansion, the number of ways in which you connect and interact with your customer also continues to change, evolve and grow. i would also like to give some information on one of the similar type of brand’s advertisement which was use for integrated marketing and have achieved success in the same.
Vodafone zoo zoo adv. In 2007, Vodafone acquired 67% stake in Hutchisson and re-branded Hutch telecom into Vodafone. while pulling along the consumer’s perceptions and preference towards the Hutch brand through the advertisement.
LikeLike
Cuteness is redefined by these campaigns. this often worked well in the market as per the study. Great effort guys. This pointed out a major strategy adopted by the brands to effectively draw more customers.
LikeLike
Who doesn’t love Meerkats and I am no exception to this. I always liked advertisements when they are done through animals which are cute and lovely. Definitely its a part of their marketing campaign to increase their brand value and image. In the whole process, the cute animals becomes part of our lives. Unless no harm is done to them it is good to continue the trend with the mix of IMC for sustainable growth and competitive advantage.
LikeLike
Thanks for the post. Its a good blog with lots of insight to IMC and Compare the market. Yes use of characters and mascots promotes and boosts the campaign. The main reason why there is a mascot in a major event is for the crowd o identify and relate to the event. Compare the market is no different. The strategy adopted by the group is definitely appealing and has got many customers to know about the brand. The only thing left to see is will this campaign make a customer log into te website and get to know more about the company, which is the aim of the campaign.
Thank you.
LikeLike
I think this is an interesting topic. the cuteness is a part of feminism concept, because it tries to attach with your emotions and the soft spot.
normally, people will be easier to focus on creatures, I think this is might be a reason many brands continuously use animal figures. such as GEICO, this brand is an insurance company, and it uses a green lizard along with its logo, which is well-known and easily recognized by customers. I think one of the benefits this lizard brought to people is that every time this lizard on the commercials, my friends and I will immediately watch to see what is going with it this time. It is much easier to memorize this brand by this lizard than its plain content.
Also, customers will prefer buying sometime they trust. Cuteness always give impression of innocent. I think customers are more likely to relax their mind-guard in front of cute animals. for companies, the trust would be easier to gain.
LikeLike
Reading the below link about the secrets of using story telling for successful brand marketing, they may reference to five specific steps, these appear to have been central to the themes adopted by the ‘compare the markets’ marketing team:
1. Be Honest
2. Create Personalities
3. Make your brand the good guys
4. Tell a complete story
5. Leave them wanting more
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-secrets-use-storytelling-marketing-success
LikeLike
Good Blog
The main goal of integrated marketing communication is to target the standard of living of people and also the buying behaviours of the customers. The use of meerkat is to draw customer’s attention for effective marketing strategy by the company. McDonalds also use the same kind of strategy by bringing out toys and other attractive goodies to gain customer’s loyalty.
This Character helped the company to be recognised and also to incur profits. IMC has a major impact to have brand image and growth in the market
Overall good
Good Luck
LikeLike
The cuteness factor in advertising reminds me of the Optus campaigns which used animals in them also.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1T1j6zj9r4.)
Aleksandr Orlov, the main meerkat has increased Comparethemarket.com’s market share by 76 per cent within a year of his 2009 debut. With a main focus on Twitter and Facebook, Aleksander shows commitment to responding to customer enquiries via these channels. He now has 456,000 friends on Facebook and 16,000 followers on Twitter. Naturally, customer service is a high priority for the company. The story behind the creation of Aleksandr is his frustration and difficulty to compare the market.
I believe the play on words is also a huge contributor to the success of this campaign. Have you ever found yourself speaking about the ‘compare the market’ ad’s only to receive a blank stare? Instantly adapt the Russian accent to say ‘Compare the meerkat’ and it instantly clicks.
References:
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/cute-animals-easy-win-ads/1230683#bCZQvjcRSXTWgxw2.99
LikeLike
Nice Blog. Cuteness certainly does sell. I agree with some of the previous comments about its effectiveness for the market segments of young families, women, and kids. I think the campaign will be less effective in some other segments but will still resonate with some.
I found an interesting article about using cuteness in a campaign in Edinbourgh.
240 wallets were “lost” in Edinburgh, Scotland recently, but surprisingly almost half were returned to their “owners” with some categories achieving a return rate of almost 90%!
What accounted for the high rate of good citizenship in returning a lost item? Evolutionary psychology!
Richard Wiseman is a professor of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. In an experiment, he and his team dropped 240 wallets on the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The wallets contained normal items such as receipts and membership cards, but none of them contained cash. The primary difference was what was contained in the clear plastic window when you opened the wallet.
There were six categories of what you might find:
1.A smiling baby
2.A cute puppy
3.A happy family
4.A contented elderly couple
5.Contribution papers to a charity
6.No photo (empty window)
However, the return rates of these lost wallets was dramatic:
◾Baby photograph, 88%!!
◾Puppy photo, 53%
◾Family photo, 48%
◾Elderly couple 28%
◾Charity card, 20%
◾No photo (control) 15%
Wiseman believes that evolutionary psychology has programmed people to be compassionate to vulnerable infants, and this triggers a higher altruistic state in the people that found the wallets. (Overall, 42% of the “lost” wallets were returned.)
Here is the link http://strategypeak.com/cute-baby-can-help-sell/
LikeLike
I really love this ad. The first impression I had was when they explained why the Meerkats got the Russian accent. I found it very funny when they illustrate how their ancestors move from Russia to Australia. It is very clever that they develop the family from there. Their ads are always relevant to our everyday life, so it is very easy to follow and remember. The cutest Meerkats is definitely the baby Oleg, he just melts your heart when you first see him. I believe they can utiliser the characters further in the future to assist with the brand promotion. I found it very easy to get attraction and to remember when companies use some characters in their branding. The most memorable one when I was a kid is Ronald McDonald from Maccas. Alongside, we have Grimace, Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird and more. They appeared on tv ads very often when I was a kid, and still memorable after I have grown up. Therefore, I believe Compare the Market can continue to success if they can develop more stories around the Meerkats.
LikeLike
Interesting blog. A “cute way to success” is an interesting approach to IMC. From a face value you think how does a character like a meerkat sell products. However this approach to IMC has proven been very successful by creating an common character that consumers can associate with, and it can appeal to a multiple
Whilst IMC really emerged in the 1990’s as a strategic approach to created a brand association with character’s is not new. I think back to my childhood and the famous Snap, Crackle and Pop character’s that were associated with the Kellogg’s’ breakfast cereal. The were built off the ideal of what the product created to consumer when that ate the cereal, but created an association with the product through their character’s, that families could associate with. Below is a link to an article which show the 1950’s marketing campaign. This was one of the most successful campaign of its time.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/from-the-archives-what-rice-krispies-has-to-do-with-glass/
Kellogg’s have not used these character’s to promote other products however could they have as they developed their brand over the years? Who knows what the impact could have been.
One of the key benefits of this form of Campaign was that it could go global successfully, like the example in the blog where the meerkat’s language is changed to penetrate other global markets where English is not the first language, Kellogg’s adopted this strategy to expand their markets in the 1950’s.
A successful IMC strategy needs to be a versatile one, partially with the global market place that companies operate in today.
Thanks for sharing your blog.
LikeLike
Interesting topic.
we can see that from the communications investments, how much the outcomes and profits getting. Members of the target sudience sre asked whether they recognize or recall the message , how many times they saw it, what points they recall how they felt felt about the message, and what are their previous and current attitudes toward the product and the company. cuteness in here is a hook success.
LikeLike
My thought on this goes on associating these type of advertisements with the type of organizations and Who should acutally use them?
Funny,Cute and interesting to watch , persoanlly the story is good, you would like to sit and wait for the other commercial to be aired. But this raises a question in my mind Who should do these type of advertisement, where you consume about 99.78% of the advertisement in running a story and in only 0.22% of the time you talk about yourself, for the first time viewers who are literally unware about you, it will be difficult for them to understand what you do.
These type of advertisements can be seen to gell up well with the orgainizations and can actually proove to be of great success for thoes who actually have a good market share and an aware population about their services and would like to increase that brand awareness.
This is where this can change the story for them, Moreover, building up the story creates more interest in customers.
But whats important is how many ‘vewers’ are being converted into ‘customers’. Simply running a story is not important. If these advertisments can be linked with the buying of the product or service rather than simply creating an awareness would prove to be more beneficial and open up a space for further development.
LikeLike
Great post. Won a competition at Auckland Zoo in NZ naming one of them. The name, ‘Upesi’ which means ‘quick’ in Swahili. Prize was a family pass to the zoo, an NZ$20 phone card and a book called Meerkat Valley. They are delightful creatures, with a real sense of family. One for all and all for one to perfection. I think the Meerkat advert is incredible genius and far better than the other quite comparatively bland car insurance adverts! The animal is obviously very very sweet and endearing – I would love to go to the Kalahari to watch these wonderful creatures in action.
LikeLike
Interesting blog.
Integrated marketing is accompanied by the birth of new media, new media development intensified, interpretation of the new media is becoming more and more enrichment.A growing media interaction;Increasingly rich content;Terminal is also more and more.
Make use of the information platform of digital and new media platform for marketing interaction to assist marketing goals.Platform marketing is the most intuitive understanding is to take the customer as the center, take the network as the guidance, with the aid of new media, to achieve the purpose enterprise and a series of business activities.Fully recognize the new marketing environment, use a variety of Internet platform to provide effective support, making the actual promotion and operation.
Crossover marketing is the innovation of industry cooperation, is also a new model in the field of integrated marketing, cross-border marketing through the mutual infiltration and fusion between the new media industry, set off and interpretation between the brand, achieve the brand from plane to solid, from the surface to depth, from passive acceptance to initiative recognition, by the practice of visual, auditory experience to lenovo, make the enterprise overall brand image and brand association more tension and has benefit to the cooperation between both sides, make their consistent recognised brand in the target consumer groups, to achieve the benefit of the “1 + 1 > 2”.With different sectors of the cross-border cooperation between enterprise and brand, expand more marketing communication space, create a bigger market space, is becoming more and more visionary companies.
LikeLike
Good Blog!
I completely agree. Integrated Marketing Communications is an emerging field with a seemingly underdeveloped theoretical base, it appears to be an unavoidable trend which will continue into the future. Changes in the business environment, along with technological innovation, increasing consumer sophistication and changes in marketing communications practices, have led organizations to seek to improve relationships with their consumers, and to strive to deliver consistent messages to all stakeholders across a wide range of marketing communications channels, in order to effectively reinforce their core proposition.
Some of the most iconic brands didn’t just have logos on their side, they also produced some of the most recognizable brand mascots in design history. From the cute to the quirky, those little characters instantly connect you to the brand.
Some iconic mascots that i can recall are Chester for Cheetos, Coco the monkey for Coco Pops, Mario for Nintendo, and Red and Yellow for M&M’s.
LikeLike
This prompted me to wonder whether they really used a range of media to appeal to all types of potential customers or whether they identified that their segment of customers can be targeted effectively using these media? What does the funny, cute, and cuddly appeal to ? Is it possible that mothers perhaps even stay-at-home mums, the ones often recognised as being the ones watching the family expenses or just simply families are the target segment as opposed to ‘all types of potential customers’? (https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/publications-articles/research-publications/social-policy-research-paper-series/number-23-household-monies-and-decision-making?HTML)
There is no doubt the characters are more reliable than a celebrity whose fame and appeal might get tarnished following unfavourable behaviour. They certainly grab the audience’s attention. They are funny which is recognised as being a better communication technique.
The play on words (market-meerkat) is likely to make it easier for the audience to recall the name which is an aspect that can be measured if one of the goals is to identify how successful the concept is in raising the initial awareness of the company ‘CompareTheMarket’.
But would this appeal to all cultures that the company can reach?
Is the message congruent with the business’s strategy? What is the goal of the communication ? Is it to merely raise awareness, or create interest ?
The message has consistent elements (the meerkat) which over time can be identified by the audience by creating the association between the brand and the characters.
The video format is good to raise awareness but text is better to convey more detailed information about how the company can meet its target customers’ needs.
LikeLike
Well written blog! good job guys!
one of the tenets of advertising is repetition. The use of Meerkat as a mascot is sensible strategy for an online insurance comparison website to the better inform the target market while making it endearing as well. Energizer bunny is another mascot that has been used by duracell to communicate their value successfully for a long period of time.Mascots , especially animals have the ability to emotionally capture the minds of the potential consumer. Kellog’s use of tony the tiger is another example that has a longstanding association with a brand. The emotional connect that the customer perceives will impact the eventual amount of time spent on processing the information.
It would be tall order for only the brand mascots to generate any revenue directly but there is no denying the effects of possessing a tool such as mascot to build a relationship with the consumer. Pull strategy at its emotional best.
LikeLike
Interesting blog. Meerkats developed an integrated marketing communications, which include the TV commercials, theme movie and the toys selling developed as the integration of the marketing communications. These communications have shown the greater outcomes and profitable status which integrate all products and services through the same brand theme. This consistent brand image has built the strong brand awareness in that the unchanged and long-time realization of brands and reduce the confusing among the competitive brands. AS the blog mentioned, the successful communications used by the Meerkats is capturing the preferences of the customers which can become the drivers of the increasing connections between the customers and suppliers and the the profits beneficial from these communications implementations.
LikeLike